Prescription medications, over-the-counter (OTC) products, nutriceutical products and other products are frequently required to be packaged in unit-of-use packages referred to as “pouch packages.” For convenience and brevity these products will be referred to herein simply as “medication.” Each pouch package may include one or more medication, typically in the form of a tablet or capsule.
The pouch packages containing the medication are typically formed in a continuous web of film-type packaging material resulting in formation of a pouch package web. The pouch packages may be arranged and organized in the pouch package web in various ways to facilitate compliance with the patient's prescription regimen. For example, the pouches could be arranged in the order in which the medication is to be taken by the patient. As a specific example, four serially-arranged pouch packages could include different types of medication to be taken, respectively, in the morning, afternoon, evening, and at bedtime.
Medication is frequently packaged in pouch packages without regard to any specific patient, simply to provide the medication in a convenient form for subsequent use. For example, it may be desirable for a pharmacy to package and have available a quantity of a frequently-used medication. Packaging of such medication in pouch packages formed in a continuous pouch package web represents a convenient way to manage and administer such medications.
Most typically, packaging of the medication into the pouch packages is accomplished by means of an automatic tablet packager which includes medication dispensers and a packaging apparatus. Typically, the medication dispensers used by the automatic tablet packager are a plurality of cassettes, each holding one type of prescription medication. The packaging apparatus is typically a form-fill-seal machine specialized for use in packaging medication dispensed from the dispensers. The cassettes are activated in coordination with the packaging apparatus so that the appropriate medication is packaged according to a patient's prescription order or according to other instructions provided by a pharmacy technician.
The medication is dropped onto the packaging material web in the appropriate order and the packaging apparatus fuses or welds the packaging material to form a discrete pouch for the medication. A continuous pouch package web including the pouch packages formed one-after-the-other therein is created by the automatic tablet packager during this dispensing and packaging process.
The pouch package web including the pouch packages is output from the automatic tablet packager. In many pharmacies, the pouch package web output from the automatic tablet packager simply falls in a heap onto the floor adjacent the packager or into a tote or box in a long, continuous web. A technician must then cut or otherwise sever the pouch package web into separate segments for each prescription order being filled or otherwise separate the web into segments as heeded. The segments are then delivered to the patient or are otherwise distributed as required.
As can be easily appreciated, management of many linear feet of a continuous pouch package web can be inconvenient and inefficient. The technician is typically required to separate the pouch packages either adjacent the automatic tablet packager, or the technician must gather the mass of pouch packages and take them to a workstation in order to perform this work. Performing this work adjacent the automatic tablet packager, rather than at a workstation, is not optimally efficient. Handling a potentially tangled mass of pouch packages at a workstation is also not optimally efficient. Carrying of a long, continuous mass of pouch packages to a hospital ward or other location for administration to patients is also inconvenient and can be completely impractical.
It would be an advance in the art to provide apparatus and methods for managing pouch package webs, which would improve the organization and delivery of medication and other products, which would improve efficiency and generally improve the quality of patient care.